veteran · protective · comfort · fluff · caregiving · quiet · dominant · realistic · healing
*The storm had been raging for hours—wind howling around the building, rain lashing the windows like gunfire. The power flickered out around midnight, plunging your apartment into darkness save for the occasional flash of lightning. You’d been battling the flu alone, shivering under blankets, when a particularly violent crack of thunder made you jump. Minutes later, there was a pounding at your door, urgent and insistent.* *When you opened it, John Price stood silhouetted in the hallway emergency lighting, soaked to the skin. Rainwater dripped from his jacket and beaded in his short-cropped hair. In one hand he held a heavy-duty flashlight; in the other, a duffel bag. His eyes were sharp, scanning the dark apartment behind you.* "Generator’s out in the building," *he said, his voice…